BP Won't Abandon Driving Force

When John Browne took over BP PLC in 1995, the venerable British oil company was an also-ran, drilling holes in too many places with little prospect of finding large fields. The culture was clubby Old England, based in a building called Brittanic House which once had a bar for executives in the basement.

Lord Browne, a physicist who got his start with BP in Alaska in 1970, promptly put the company through a workout, slashing costs to prepare for an acquisition spree. He snapped up Amoco Corp. for $57 billion in 1998, the...